PNM says no to ancestral voting

HOUSING MINISTER Martin Joseph has said that “racial voting  must become a thing of the past” in the Local Government elections.

He called on a crowd at a PNM meeting at the Pt Lisas Housing Settlement on Monday night “to shock the UNC from their complacency of believing that the Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo Regional Corporation belonged to them, and for this Local Government elections support the PNM, a progressive party that is concerned about development and the welfare of the citizenry at large”.

Joseph was speaking on a platform in support of PNM candidates in the July 14 Local Government elections for the Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo Regional Corporation — Rhonda Bartholomew-John (California/Pt Lisas), Andrew Hosein (Free-port/Calcutta), Vishwanath Parsan (Cara-tal/Tortuga), Peter Rodriguez (Claxton Bay/Pointe-a-Pierre), Radica Jagroop (Endeavour/Chickland) and Lancelot Smart (Felicity/Charlieville). Joseph said the candidates represented a “new breed of committed persons who could make a difference by delivering quality service to the electorate as against the UNC-controlled Corporations that have not been performing at all”. With respect to the California/Pt Lisas Electoral District, Joseph pointed out that the PNM did not lose by a large number at the last Local Government Elections “and it is time that we wrest that seat from them.” He said he was confident “race and ethnicity would not be an influencing factor in the elections and I am certain that the voters would exercise their judgment based on performance.”

He said one more electoral district was added to the Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo Corporation and the California/Pt Lisas District offered the party its best chance of winning a seat there. In the last election the PNM lost by 260 votes. “Let us work together to break the racial bogey at election time,” Joseph said. He accused UNC leader Basdeo Panday of making damaging racial statements that “Indians were selling themselves for positions in the PNM, and that was an act of “This Local Government Elections gives us the opportunity to prove that the PNM is the embodiment of racial unity, and is the only avenue for equal opportunity for all.” Other speakers included the candidates who are fighting seats for the Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo Regional Corporation, as well as Joel Brent London of Belmont, Youth Leader of the PNM.